


an idea which has found its bayonets

by elumish



Series: the sentinel stars set their watch in the sky [4]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV), Stargate SG-1, Teen Wolf (TV), The Sentinel
Genre: Alternate Universe - Sentinels and Guides Are Known, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-03
Updated: 2018-05-03
Packaged: 2019-05-01 16:20:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14524488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elumish/pseuds/elumish
Summary: “Are you going to let your Guide speak for you?”O’Neill stares at the man for a long moment, then leans in to the microphone and says, “Yes.”Stilinski elbows him.O’Neill sighs.





	an idea which has found its bayonets

The conference’s Saturday keynote speaker isn’t listed beforehand.

Spencer knows he should probably have flagged that as soon as he looked at the conference information, but he’s distracted by a case, and he doesn’t actually think about it until the conference organizer announces, “After lunch, we will have the honor of hearing from the future Prime Pair of the United States.”

The conference is the biggest Sentinel/Guide conference in the country, somewhere between an academic conference and an industry one, with makers of Sentinel-friendly products and Sentinel- and Guide-friendly pharmaceuticals mixing with hardcore Sentinel/Guide academics and mainstream Sentinels and Guides.

Spencer is there partly out of academic and personal curiosity and partly due to one of the earlier presentations on improved ethical utilization of Guide abilities in law enforcement. He had been considering leaving, even, finding little else to keep his interest and with a book at home he’s been dying to read, but at this point, that’s not going to happen.

The auditorium fills up quickly after lunch; Spencer takes a seat near the end, shirt collar turned up in such a way to hide that he doesn’t have a bonding tattoo. In a less crowded room, it would be obvious without anybody having to see it, but given the number of Sentinels and Guides in the room, nobody should be able to tell without touching him, and no Sentinel at least would do that.

People around the room are chattering, some twisted in their chairs to talk to people behind them or standing around the edges, and it only somewhat dies down when the conference organizer steps out to the podium on stage and announces into the microphone, “For privacy reasons, it has been requested that you do not take pictures during this presentation. Sentinels will be patrolling to ensure that the request is being followed.” After a second of silence, he continues, “It is my genuine pleasure to present to you the future Prime Pair of the United States, Sentinel Jonathan O’Neill and Guide Stiles Stilinski.”

Two men step out on stage, and the entire room goes silent.

Somehow, Spencer isn’t surprised that O’Neill and Stilinski are the future Prime Pair. He hasn’t seen either of them since the case almost two years ago, but Stilinski is still the strongest Guide he has ever been in the presence of, including Blair. He hadn’t realized they were still bonded, but it’s not a shock, either.

“Hello,” Stilinski says into the microphone. He was clearly a strong Guide when Spencer last saw him, but now he’s steady in a way he wasn’t before; it’s like he manages to have a stronger gravitational pull than everything around him, attracting everything to him. Spencer wonders if people who aren’t Sentinels or Guides can feel it, too. “My name is Stiles Stilinski.” He reaches back and pats O’Neill’s chest. “This is Jonathan, my Sentinel.”

He’s silent for a second. Everybody watches, waits.

“That’s not usually say it, is it? Normally we’d say that I’m his Guide. The belonging may be technically reciprocal, but it’s presented as one-sided. If we talk about it in a literal sense, Guides are the ones who are marked. Bonded Guides are branded, essentially, and nobody questions it.” He pulls back his collar, to show--

Bare skin, no tattoo in sight. There are gasps.

“Does that shock you? I thought it might. I’m a bonded Guide, but for privacy and security reasons, I don’t have a bonding tattoo. There’s no visual way to tell that I belong to Jonathan--but there’s no way to tell that he belongs to me, either.” He releases his collar, and O’Neill reaches out to smooth it down.

“Without getting into too much detail,” Stilinski continues, “Jonathan and I bonded under traumatic circumstances. We were actually already in a hospital when we bonded. Both of us were tense; neither of us were particularly thrilled to be in that situation. When people interacted with us, they asked Jonathan’s permission to enter the space. Jonathan’s permission was assumed to be needed to touch me.”

There is silence.

Stilinski smiles. Every from this distance, even to Spencer, it doesn’t look happy. “What is missing there is that my permission was never asked. The assumption was that the Sentinel spoke for both of us, that his consent was all that was necessary when it came to my body. There are two problems with this. First, that Guides are entitled to just as much bodily autonomy as anybody else. Nobody has a right to decide that a Guide’s body should be touched but the Guide, and if the Sentinel is the one asked, the Guide is not given the chance to say no. The second problem is that this system makes it easy for Sentinels to hide abuse of their Guides. If their consent is required for nurses, doctors, S/G Center workers, or mandatory reporters to examine a Guide, and if the assumption is that a Guide will never be separated from their Sentinel if their Sentinel refuses the separation, any manner of abuse could be hidden simply by a Sentinel refusing consent.

“Why am I telling you all of this? Because over the next few years, we will be working with the Prime Pair to change medical and governmental protocols regarding the treatment of bonded Guides in the United States.”

The room breaks out into noise, and Stilinski watches then for a moment; Spencer can see O’Neill’s hand shift, like he’s pressing it to Stilinski’s back. He might need the emotional grounding, given the whirlwind of emotions whipping around the auditorium. Spencer has his own shields locked tight, but he can still feel it, pressing against him.

Finally, Stilinski lifts a hand, and then room falls silent again. “Some of you won’t like these changes. That’s how shifts in power dynamics work; the people losing power rarely enjoy it. And we do want to hear from Sentinels, including bonded Sentinels. But more than that, we want to hear from bonded Guides. I am just one Guide, and my views are not identical to the Guide Prime’s. In that spirit, we’re now going to open the floor up for questioning.”

Dozens of hands go up immediately, and a microphone is passed down to a man near the front, who demands, “Are you going to let your Guide speak for you?”

O’Neill stares at the man for a long moment, then leans in to the microphone and says, “Yes.”

Stilinski elbows him.

O’Neill sighs.

“Stiles is the expert,” he says, shifting over so he’s closer to the microphone. Stilinski tries to move out of the way, but O’Neill wraps an arm around his shoulders, holding him close. “I’m not a bonded Guide; I can’t speak to those issues. And besides, my inclination is to not listen to any of you idiots, but Stiles has more patience than me, which is why he’s doing this.”

Stilinski rubs his forehead. “Your suggested speech was just ‘We fucked up. Let’s fix it.’” He shakes his head. “Anyway. Next question. Please try to stick to something relevant or at least less offensive, thanks.”

The next person to get the microphone asks, “What about feral or demi-feral reactions to contact with Guides? There are dozens--at least--of reported cases of that, and you can’t just pretend that changing hospital protocols would get rid of that problem.”

“No, you’re right. That is a problem. Part of the protocol changes will also include additional training for Sentinels, both bonded and unbonded, on how to deal with contact with their Guides. Most training already includes some of this, which is why Sentinels don’t all lose their mind when people accidentally brush against their Guides--which I’m sure has already happened dozens of times today, with no feral incidents.”

“For proof that training works,” O’Neill adds, “military training already incorporates aspects of this, to allow Guides to be treated and Sentinels to be separated from their Guides for extended periods of time. Military Sentinels actually have a significantly lower rate of feral and demi-feral incidents outside of DKZ-related issues.”

“Details on the specifics are still being worked out,” Stilinski puts in. “Just by virtue of the fact that those being trained will be civilians, the training will be different, and some different techniques will almost definitely be implemented. But we’re figuring it out. Next question.”

There’s a bit of scrambling as they pass a new microphone down a row on the other side of the auditorium, and then someone says, “I’m a Guide, a bonded Guide, and one of the issues I have is empathetic burnout. In those cases, I’m essentially catatonic; I wouldn’t be able to make choices about what I want, and even if I could, I wouldn’t be able to express them. Under these new protocols, would doctors or nurses need my permission to treat me?”

Stilinski shakes his head. “Emergency protocols around stuff like that will remain basically the same. Sentinels will still have override when it comes to empathetic burnout and such, just as Guides will still have override when it comes to zones and grey-outs. The point of this isn’t to change who Sentinels and Guides are or walk back bonding rights, but instead to give Guides equal or at least equivalent rights.

“We understand that some Guides may not like these changes. We are currently considering adding an optional provision to allow for enhanced medical power of attorney, but that’s just one of the many things still on the drawing board. If you have an opinion on that one way or another, you’re free to contact us and let us know.”

A hand in the crowd goes up, and when Stiles points at them, the person asks, “How can we contact you?”

“Right.” Stiles claps his hands, wincing when the noise is picked up by microphone. “Sorry. You can send an email or letter--do people still send letters?--to either the NorCal Sentinel/Guide Center or the, uh, the Central Oregon Sentinel/Guide Center. Just say it’s for us, and in either case, it’ll get to us.” He pulls out a cell phone from his pocket and checks it. “I won’t take any more of your time. Thank you all for listening.”

He and O’Neill walk off the stage, and for a moment there is silence. And then the room erupts into noise.

Spencer slips out amidst the chaos, aiming for somewhere quieter. It’s overwhelming, sometimes, the sheer level of noise and movement that a crowd can generate, and it’s one of the many reasons he’s never envied Sentinels for their powers.

There are at least a dozen makeshift sensory rooms, so Spencer opens the door to the first one he finds--

Then stops, because Stiles Stilinski and Jonathan O’Neill are standing in the middle of it, arms wrapped around each other. They both turn at the door opening, O’Neill putting himself between Spencer and Stilinski.

“You didn’t mark the room as occupied,” Spencer says, rather idiotically; the room is clearly occupied.

But Stilinski just steps around O’Neill and shakes his head, saying, “Sorry, we were distracted. You’re--FBI, right? Uh. Reid. Dr. Reid.”

“Spencer Reid,” O’Neill confirms. “You were involved when Stiles was taken, that first time.”

Spencer nods. “I was.”

“Do you”--Stilinski waves his hands--”need the room? We can go somewhere else.”

“No, I was just looking for somewhere to get away from the noise.” Spencer hesitates, then asks, “Do you really think you can get these new regulations passed? I have to imagine there’s a lot of backlash, including from Blair.”

“We are if I have to bribe every last politician myself.” Stilinski shakes his head. “I don’t know what your view is on all this--though I’d be happy to listen if you want to tell me--but there’s a level of violation allowed in our current system that I don’t know how anyone can live with. As the system works currently, Sentinels can force nearly anything on their Guides, and healthcare workers would have virtually no recourse to even examine them, not unless they already had pre-existing proof of abuse. That’s fucked up. And if I’m going to be presiding over a system, I’d rather not be presiding over a fucked up one.”

“You may not want to talk about bribing politicians to the FBI agent,” O’Neill says, curling a hand around the back of Stilinski’s neck. “How are you doing? I know crowds like this can be a lot for unbonded Guides.”

Somewhat startled by the concern--though he really shouldn’t be, not given the instinctive concern all Sentinels, even bonded ones, have for Guides--Spencer says, “Wishing people would stop checking for bonding tattoos, but I’m fine.”

Stilinski laughs. “I know. They’re not even subtle about it, are they? I was wandering around the conference earlier--don’t pout at me, Jonathan, I was fine--and they’re all staring at your neck like some vampire. If there was a little less focus on protecting the Guide, I think they would insist we all walk around stripped down to the waist.”

O’Neill makes a noise, and without looking away from Spencer, Stilinski leans over and pats him on the chest. “Don’t worry,” Stilinski continues, “my virtue is protected. And besides, now that who we are has been announced, nobody at the conference will get anywhere near me. Dr. Reid, I would like to talk to you, though, at some point, about FBI S/G protocols. Every agency seems to have a different set of protocols, and I’d like your opinion on the FBI ones, if you don’t mind.”

Spencer nods. “Sure.”

“Great.” Stilinski claps his hands. “We’ll leave you in peace, now.”

He moves out of the way so they can pass him, and they’re almost out of the room when he says, “Good luck.”

Stilinski looks back to smile at him, but it’s O’Neill’s eyes that stick with him, long after they’re gone.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm (still) working on Jonathan and Stiles going to Atlantis, but I figured I'd post this.


End file.
